On Memorial Day, I went with a friend on a short hike up the Santa Monica Mountains. We started later than I would have liked and there was a parade that blocked our drive, but when we got there, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled with fear. Everything about the mountains screamed disaster.

Yet, I had friends who could go calmly and coolly on hikes in the early summer and into the early autumn. They still found it refreshing. One person met online fairly sneered with ridicule of my fears and went along with his weekly hikes in the mountains of Altadena. I thought of him when there was a fire, August 26, on that very trail. I was at work and the firefighters had to help hikers and their dogs to safety. Just two weeks ago, my friend told me he was going up a different trail in the Angeles Forest. That was before the closure due to high fire danger.

I see nothing refreshing in seeing disaster as I walk up a trail. The state of the vegetation in the Pasadena area, drier than that of the Santa Monica Mountains, was a red flag. Even earlier, though, red flags were waving.

I had followed the Wildflower hotline on the Internet, and the forecast for the season wasn't good. It was too dry, at least too dry in the mountains and deserts, and too dry in our forests. It wasn't too dry on the lawns in front of houses or on the hundreds of golf courses in California.

We had a drought from 1987-1992 in California. People were urged to give up their lawns, to plant like one lived in a Mediterranean climate or arid desert area, and not like the moist and gray England. The term xeriscape came into common use among gardeners, but didn't penetrate that deeply into the gardening practices of Californians it seems. People were urged to give up sprinklers in favor of drip irrigation.

There was some penetration. One could see it even at places like Disneyland, but even with this warning, we were still wasteful and careless.

Few people in California, particularly Southern California, know about World Water Day. Water is not as widespread a concern here as is smog and traffic emissions. You can get coverage for Earth Day, but coverage for World Water Day is rare and not very popular even more than a decade after its inception by the United Nations.

Water is California's least covered major story. We have ignored it. Even as we entered into a perfect drought season, we only got polite reminders and requests to conserve water.